1 September: Aotearoa Not for Sale takes it to Porirua (part tahi)

Aotearoa is Not For Sale-Wellington (ANFS) took the fight to save our state assets to Porirua, where a marquee was set up at the Cobham Court market, under The Canopies…

ANFS organisor/activist, Ariana opened the gig and welcomed onlookers to the event. She stated that the fight against asset sales was by no means a “dunne deal” and New Zealanders up and down the country continued to oppose National’s disastrous agenda.

Ariana pointed out ANFS activists, moving through the crowd, armed with clip-boards and circulating the “Keep Our Assets” petition calling for a referendum on the issue,

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A “fly-in-the-ointment” – a bar behind our stand began belting out Irish tunes at an atrocious decibel-level. The loud music nearly drowned out speakers and musicians, even with our speakers on full.

The owner was approached and politely asked to turn his volume down. Despite his bar not even open to the public (at 9am?!), he declined our request, citing some disagreement with the local Council,

Kuni Shepherd, Kaumatua for Te Korowai-Whāriki. and a member of the Mental Health Kaunihera, opened the event with a brief karakia,

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Ariana, thanked the previous speaker and introduced the next speaker, Porirua Mayor, Nick Leggett. Before she handed the microphone to Mayor Leggett, Ariana remarked that there was no excuse for child poverty in this country, and,

“Every chilod in this country should have enough to eat.”

Kia ora to that, Ariana…

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Nick Leggett, stated his personal opposition to state asset sales. He spoke of Council investment in local facilities which benefitted the community as a whole, not just those who had money to buy services. Mayor Leggett described asset sales as a massive transfer of wealth – the largest in a generation.

He spoke of asset sales as not being a good form of investment for the country, as only a minority benefitted.

Mayor Leggett said that whilst he did not represent the Council, as it had no formal position on this issue, that as an individual he stood in solidarity with public opposition to asset sales. He added that he welcomed the Aotearoa Not For Sale” movement to the city,

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MP for Mana, Kris Faafoi, then took ‘the stage’ at the microphone.

Mr Faafoi said,

“There’s still a whole lot more we can do. We need 60,000 more signatures!”

He said that if asset sales – particularly electricity companies – went ahead, it would be guaranteed that prices would go up. One power company had already recently raised their retail prices for their customers.

Kris Faafoi paid tribute to ‘People Power Ohariu’, congratulating their efforts to lobby MP, Peter Dunne, to review his support for National’s asset sales agenda. He said,

“We can still make Peter Dunne change his mind! Email him at Parliament! peter.dunne@parliament.govt.nz.”

This blogger witnessed several people hurriedly scribbling Dunne’s email address on scraps of paper or notebooks.

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Te Taku Parai, Iwi representative for Ngati Toa, said that he never thought he would grow up to live in a country where homelessness would be so bad. He said that asset sales would not help the poorest people in our society, nor give opportunities for children living in poverty,

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‘John Key’ made an “impromptu visit”.

It must be a tough life, wheeling his ‘millions’ around, from one shady deal to another,

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Following the speakers, some fantastic entertainment from Joshua Faletutulu, and his sister, Grace (photo to follow). The crowd enjoyed Joshua’s talent with the guitar and singing,

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Green MP, Jan Logie, addressing the crowd.

Ms Logie was emphatic in her denunciation of National’s asset-sale agenda, saying that it would achieve nothing except worsen the already wide income gap. She was particularly scathing of people who were dismissive of the petition and stating their intention to buy into a share float,

” People who ignore the petition and want to buy shares are saying, ‘Nah, screw you, I have money and want to make more money.”

She said that people who can’t afford shares will pay in another way, as their power prices rise,

“That is not the New Zealand way.”

Ms Logie said we are here to look after each other, not just ourselves and our own enrichment,

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ANFS activist, Shane, and two Porirua locals eager to sign the petition,

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More speakers and musicians followed, along with a surprising resolution to loud music from the “The Dog Box” and what the owner did next…

My husband and I are small business operators and think that selling our power companies is the wrong thing to do. It doesn’t make any sense business-wise. We signed the petition and will probably go back to Labour at the next election.

@ Sunshine – It doesn’t make financial sense to anyone. Key is selling of our state asset to make his Wall St mates richer, end of story. The whole “mum and dads investor” thing was pure bullshit from Day One. Only the morons in this country believe Key anymore.

Thakyou for sharing once again frank this is orsom, just leting the people know, you never giveup on something everyone will benefit from now n into the future, good work, thanks to this group your in (ANFS) NICE PICS ….OUR SPIRITS WITH YOU’S ….Luv it ..keep the fires burning keep up the good works …….Nga mihinui ki ou mahi e frank

Thakyou for sharing once again frank this is orsom, just leting the people know, you never giveup on something everyone will benefit from now n into the future, good work, thanks to this group your in (ANFS) NICE PICS ….OUR SPIRITS WITH YOU’S ….Luv it ..keep the fires burning keep up the good works …….Nga mihinui ki ou mahi e frank